Records for BlackRock: Assets Soaring to New Heights

The world's largest asset manager, BlackRock, achieved another record in assets under management in the third quarter. With impressive inflows into the company's exchange-traded funds and a strong upswing in the stock market, the value of clients' investments increased significantly. The stock markets showed resilience and recovered from the downturns in August. This development was fueled by the hope for a soft landing of the world's largest economy, following the release of promising inflation data. The major stock indices closed higher in the third quarter: the S&P 500 rose by 5.4%, while the MSCI World Index recorded a gain of 6.2%. BlackRock's assets under management reached $11.48 trillion in the third quarter, marking a significant increase compared to the previous year. The asset manager recorded impressive net inflows of $160 billion in long-term investments in the third quarter. Overall, net inflows reached a quarterly peak of $221.18 billion, compared to $2.57 billion in the same period of the previous year. In particular, BlackRock's ETFs attracted the majority of inflows with $97.41 billion, while $62.74 billion was invested in fixed-income products. Despite the generally weaker inflows in recent years due to the attractiveness of safe investments like cash, a positive trend is emerging for riskier investments due to the easing of interest rates by the US Federal Reserve. BlackRock's net profit rose to $1.63 billion or $10.90 per share, up from $1.60 billion or $10.66 per share in the same period last year. The company's shares have increased by about 18% so far in 2024 but have lagged behind the 21% increase of the S&P 500.